Is Apple creating technology to ban photography at gigs?

If you are heading to Glastonbury next week or the V Festival in August, it’s highly likely you’ll want to take a couple of photographs or video of your favourite band. According to Sky News Apple filed a patent for technology that appears to detect when the iPhone is held in the air and disable the smartphones camera:

‘An infrared emitter can be located in areas where picture or video capture is prohibited, and the emitter can generate infrared signals with encoded data that includes commands to disable the recording functions of devices. An electronic device can then receive the infrared signals, decode the data and temporarily disable the device’s recording function based on the command.‘

In effect, when the camera takes a photo, it could capture infrared signals with encoded data and this data could then disable the camera.

This could also be used in museums – perhaps next to exhibits that would be damaged by a flash trigger.

We should point out that of company’s and individuals have patents that never see the light of day. But, even if it’s technologically possible (and that’s a big if because of the costs involved), we don’t see how this can ever be implemented fairly. Is it another method for unscrupulous promoters at concerts or at holiday destinations to make you buy official photos?

It also doesn’t seem fair. Although the music industry may welcome this as a means to limit piracy, most people who film at concerts don’t do for money, they do so for posterity – so you can play back your wobbly clip of Arcade Fire from Glastonbury and say ‘I was there,’ as this clip proves….

And even through cameraphones are getting better, shooting in low light isn’t always productive.

So if this happens where will it stop? Does that mean that in the future DVD players in the future will be able to recognise when an illegal movie is being used and shut the player down? Who knows… Let us know what you think by Facebook and Twitter.